3T RPD celebrates 12,345th plastic build

There’s no better way to celebrate than with cake and that is exactly what the team at 3T RPD did when the company recently reached an impressive milestone.

3T RPD, a leading provider of plastic and metal additive manufacturing services throughout the UK and Europe, has built its 12,345th plastic build since the company was first established in 1999. As the company’s Marketing Manager, Lynn Painter said: “Who said this was ‘new’ technology?”

The company estimates that during this time it has built and shipped in excess of 1.5 million parts to customers demonstrating the tremendous growth of the business and the additive manufacturing industry as a whole. 3T RPD also reckons that in the last four years they have built around half a million parts. This number looks set to grow as the company continues to install new machines and upgrade existing systems.

To commemorate this milestone, the CAD team got to work creating five more builds – only this time they were in the form of five celebratory cakes.

Ian Halliday, 3T RPD CEO: “This milestone is a demonstration that additive manufacturing is an established, accepted and growing production method – a trend that we know will continue. We are seeing our customers evolving from using AM parts for prototyping to asking us to manufacture final use parts as their experience of, and confidence in, AM expands. And 3T’s tradition of ‘celebrating with cakes’ is a trend that I’m confident will also continue.”

3T RPD recently showed some new developments in materials at TCT Show with advancements in copper, flame retardant and full colour materials being some of the most promising stories coming out of the company’s research and development department.